The unidentified object was only about two centimeters long at this distance, but that was enough for Jiang Ling. Her eyesight was excellent, and even from a more distant geostationary orbit, she could discern a few details with the naked eye. It was worth noting that while it looked like a cylinder from a distance, it resembled a cross up close. Two straight, crawling robotic arms jutted outward from its long axis, like a ballerina with her arms extended. All external modules and the orbiter itself revolved around its central axis.
Jiang Ling slowly moved closer and soon sensed the dying breath of several creatures in the unidentified spacecraft. She frowned and then confirmed its true identity based on the spacecraft's exterior paint.
The mission target was a medium-sized space cruise ship, the "MNZ-25," also known as the Type 25 Songbird-class medium-sized passenger vessel. As the name suggests, this ship's design is essentially a replica of the Bluebird-class. However, compared to the rare engineering vessels, this decade-old model is incredibly popular among civilians and has been widely praised. So much so that workers in Zhongjing City, the original Martian city, have volunteered to maintain its automated production line.
Jiang Ling wasn't entirely sure of the ship's exact route, but she had a vague idea of what had happened to the unfortunate passengers aboard—they must have struck a space mine that hadn't been cleared over thirty years after the war. Only an electromagnetic pulse from that mine could have crippled the ship to such an extent. Similar accidents were common, like the sins committed by certain nations during wartime on Earth, potentially harming the invaded for generations.
With human lives at stake, Jiang Ling had to find a way to dock with the wrecked spacecraft as soon as possible, but this was no easy task. The spacecraft's rotational speed continued to increase, now reaching an angular velocity of 18 revolutions per minute. The resulting centrifugal force of approximately 300 tons was constantly squeezing the Songbird-class titanium alloy keel's tensile strength.
There are many ways to slow down a spacecraft.
The most direct method was to steer Unit 2 parallel to the ship's spin, then use a rigid connection and reverse thrust from the main engine to slow the ship down. This approach would place a significant strain on the strength of the protrusions on the ship's exterior. Jiang Ling calculated that the interaction force generated at the moment Unit 2 docked with the ship would be equivalent to a pedestrian hitting a car head-on on the highway, so she immediately abandoned this approach.
A relatively safe method, similar to what was depicted in a film set on Earth, would require Jiang Ling to withstand significant G-forces, orbit the spacecraft, accelerate to relative rest, and then dock and reverse thrust to decelerate. This method would consume nearly double the fuel of the previous one, and Unit 2 simply didn't have that much fuel to waste, so it was also rejected.
After weighing the pros and cons, she finally chose a rather risky method - the space handrail outside the spacecraft really could not bear the weight of Unit 2, but if it was just an exoskeleton, then it was hard to say.
She took a deep breath, then manually unlocked the lock between the exoskeleton and the seat, took out four safety ropes from the storage box beside her and installed them in the slots reserved at the waist of the exoskeleton. Then she slowly detached herself from Unit 2 and floated towards the crashed spacecraft that was still spinning.
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